Massoud Hossaini (born 10 December 1981) is an Afghan-born photojournalist. He works for Agence France-Presse. Hossaini was the winner of the 2012

Pulitzer Prize for Breaking News Photography and the winner of World Press Photo Pulitzer may refer to: *Joseph Pulitzer, a 20th century media magnate * Pulitzer Prize, an annual U.S. journalism, literary, and music award *Pulitzer (surname) * Pulitzer, Inc., a U.S. newspaper chain *Pulitzer Center on Crisis Reporting, a non-pr ...

, along with several other world photography awards, he won William Randolph Hearst Award for Excellence in Professional Journalism (2021), from

San Jose State University San José State University (San Jose State or SJSU) is a public university in San Jose, California. Established in 1857, SJSU is the oldest public university on the West Coast and the founding campus of the California State University (CSU) sy ...

's School of Journalism.

Biography

Hossaini was born in

Kabul Kabul (; ps, , ; , ) is the capital and largest city of Afghanistan. Located in the eastern half of the country, it is also a municipality, forming part of the Kabul Province; it is administratively divided into 22 municipal districts. Ac ...

during the

Soviet–Afghan War The Soviet–Afghan War was a protracted armed conflict fought in the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan from 1979 to 1989. It saw extensive fighting between the Soviet Union and the Afghan mujahideen (alongside smaller groups of anti-Soviet ...

, but his family fled to

Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkm ...

when he was six months old after his father was arrested for opposing the communist government. After graduating high school in 1996, Hossaini became a political activist with the

Iranian reform movement The Reformists ( fa, اصلاح‌طلبان, Eslâh-Talabân) are a political faction in Iran. Iran's "reform era" is sometimes said to have lasted from 1997 to 2005—the length of President Mohammad Khatami's two terms in office. The ...

and began recording events with his camera, including Afghanistan refugees' life in

Mashhad Mashhad ( fa, مشهد, Mašhad ), also spelled Mashad, is the second-most-populous city in Iran, located in the relatively remote north-east of the country about from Tehran. It serves as the capital of Razavi Khorasan Province and has a po ...

. He was stuck in the American University of Afghanistan attack and wrote an SOS message on Twitter on 24 August 2016. After the

11 September attacks The September 11 attacks, commonly known as 9/11, were four coordinated suicide terrorist attacks carried out by al-Qaeda against the United States on Tuesday, September 11, 2001. That morning, nineteen terrorists hijacked four commercial ...

, he returned to Afghanistan to join

Aina Aina may refer to: * Aina (given name) Places * Aina (Crete), a town of ancient Crete * Aïna River, a river in Cameroon and Gabon * Aina, Iran, a village in Kermanshah Province, Iran Art and entertainment * ''Aina'' (1977 film), a 1977 Pakista ...

, a French cultural organization and studied with photographer

Manoocher Deghati Manoocher Deghati ( fa, منوچهر دقتی, born 1954 in Urmia, Iran) is an Iranian-French photojournalism, photojournalist. Documenting the Iranian Revolution In the summer of 1978, Manoocher Deghati, educated as a filmmaker, returned to Iran ...

. He joined AFP in 2007. His work is featured in the American documentary '' Frame by Frame''.

References

External links

Pulitzer citation

World Press Photo bio
1981 births Living people Photojournalists People from Kabul Pulitzer Prize for Photography winners Afghan Muslims Afghan photographers {{Afghanistan-journalist-stub